Page 65 of An Investigator For Ivy

“She is,” he said. “Not my type.”

“Please,” Raine said. “Totally your type. Someone you can protect like you did that night.”

“I don’t need or want to protect anyone.”

Raine laughed. “Brooks. You’re lying to me and yourself. You totally do. It’s in your blood. You don’t want anyone to see it, but it’s there. If she’s silly and materialistic and high maintenance, no, you don’t want that. If she’s young and wounded, yeah, that’s the problem. Is that it?”

“You’re being nosy,” he said.

“I guess I’m just worried about you.”

He snorted. “No reason to be worried about me.” His phone went off and he grabbed it quickly. It wasn’t from Ivy. Just a news alert.

“Hoping for a text from Ivy?” Raine asked.

“Don’t you have someone else to bug?” he asked.

“Fine,” Raine said. “I’ll leave you alone to think about everything I’ve said.”

“Nothing to think about.”

“There you go again lying to yourself.”

Raine picked her jacket up and left and he found himself on the couch waiting for a text.

It didn’t come until after dinner and it was only two words. The same two he’d sent.

The ball was still in his court and he realized he forgot how to dribble.

19

Good Job Fooling People

“Hi. You’re Ivy, right?”

Ivy looked up from the iPad she was working on while she walked around the store on Wednesday. She was checking inventory and getting ready to fill out what was needed to get from the plant.

“I am,” she said. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m Raine Scarsdale.”

Her jaw dropped. Did Brooks tell his family about her? It had to be. How else would this woman know her name and where she worked? Raine probably saw Brooks talking to her at the bar a few days ago.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, putting her hand out.

“You’re wondering why I’m here, aren’t you?”

“Kind of,” she said. “Though I’m pretty sure it has to do with a big grouchy man. Though I don’t think he’d put you up to anything.”

Raine laughed. “Never. He would kill me if he knew I was here, so we can keep this to ourselves, right?”

She grinned. “We can. It’s nice to know his family thinks the same way I do.”

“That he’s grouchy?”

“Can I add stubborn to the list?” she asked.

“Right up there with rude,” Raine said. “Can we go somewhere private to talk?”

---